Hannah Faith Crump

The Color Guard shares their experiences as a team.

See a flag, see a flash of colors. Watch a flag, and watch a stream of colors. See a rifle, see a throw. Watch a rifle, and watch it spin, all right in front of a muted blue, flowy dress. Look up, and see siren makeup and a fishtail braid. Look down, and watch the marching from one set to the next. This is the LCM Color Guard; in dazzling dresses and perilous iridescent pearls, they make any show that they’re a part of that much more interesting.

The Color Guard consists of seniors Shae Hawk and Aylee Coleman, juniors Kaitlynn Jarreau and Haley Long, and sophomores Maliah Askari, Ethan Ybarra, Addison Jackson, Rylie Hughes, and Kaylan Moore. The director’s name is Jaime Ener. The Color Guard is a part of the Battlin’ Bear Band and performs at halftime shows, as well as dancing to the music in the first and second halves of the football games, both home, and away, up in the stands. Anytime the band is somewhere, the color guard is, too; the band isn’t quite complete without them.

“Color Guard is the usual aspect of marching band,” Jarreau said. “We spin spin flags, rifles, and sabers. We also dance. I joined because it seemed appealing and fun.”

In addition to dancing in the stands and marching out on the football field, members of the Color Guard also dance as they walk through the halls with the LCM drumline, cheerleaders, and the Honey Bears on the way to pep rallies on Fridays. They also put in many extra hours practicing after school, which is usually a minimum of at least two hours – sometimes longer. Even on days that the band is off, members of the Guard can be seen outside practicing on the asphalt outside.

“I believe the best part of being in guard is getting to do dances in the stands at football games,” Ybarra said. “The worst part is accidentally getting hit with flags 50% of the time, as well as having all the extra practices.”

Being in color guard has its highs and lows. The color guard members are always ensuring that they look their best for every performance that they go to. However, this takes time and energy to do almost every Friday and Saturday during football and competition season. This year, the Color Guard members are “sirens” in the show, “The Song of the Sirens.” So, fish nets and eyeshadow are used to create intrastate scale looking patterns on the face, and pearls are strung into braids or buns to look more theatrical.

According to Jackson, Color Guard means performing and putting on a cool show for the audience. She also said she loves the people and spending time with the other Guard members.

Jaime Ener, the director of this group, is in her first year as the director, but has already proven to be a successful leader.

“I like to show my emotions through flag,” Ener said. ” I love to teach it.”